| iamb |
| Definition: A unit of poetic meter consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Note: It is the most frequently used foot in English meter. Many claim that it describes the natural rhythm of language. Sadly, the word iamb is not pronounced iambically. |
| Example:
(1) The phrase da - 'dum is an iamb. (2) Shakespeare's sonnet Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? is written in iambic pentameter (i.e., a line consisting of five consecutive iambs). |
| Etymology: The word derives via Latin from the Greek iambikos (from iambos, a metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable). Some history: The Greek word iambos derives from iaptein, to attack with words. To the classical Greeks iambic meter was the meter of invective and ridicule from the time it was first used for this purpose by Archilochos in the 7th century BCE. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The word's first OED citation in this sense is from 1575: "In the nexte seate to thes hexameters, adonickes, and iambicks, I sett those that stand uppon the number, not in meter, such as my lorde of Surrey is sayde first to have putt forthe in prynte." (G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 100 ) |